The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

by:  Mary Kubica
published by:  Harlequin Mira
publish date:  July 29, 2014

Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life. 

This book is going to be one of the big hyped books of the summer.  It's supposed to be the next Gone Girl and be a major psychological thriller.  That's what all the buzz about this book has been so far.  I'll grant that it was pretty good.  It wasn't Gillian Flynn good though, so all these critics and publicists need to stop hyping everyone in comparison to the big GF, because it ain't happenin'.  I read The Good Girl all the way through, thought it was well written and when I got to the big reveal I was still somewhat surprised.

The Good:  I liked the overall plot line.  It was an interesting story, however I didn't completely understand Mia's behavior.  The story is told in current and past tense.  Her current behavior doesn't really add up, even after the reveal, I didn't quite understand why she was acting the way that she was.  I like a story that makes me think.  I like the cover, the minimalism is quite nice.

Things I didn't like:  There's something about the cover that disturbs me, which contradicts what I last said, but there it is.  I like it, but it's also unsettling.  I understand things like Stockholm Syndrome exists, but it seems like in this case, it's something entirely different.  Without divulging any of the details of the book, it seems like Mia's problems would be a little different than Stockholm.  The motivations in this book seemed to be a bit murky at best.

This would be a great book for book groups, they could pick apart all these details and figure out these things.  I would definitely recommend it to the psychological thriller fans.  If you've read it, let me know what you think.